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In February 2018 twelve Pacific Whale Foundation volunteers participated in a public access to one of Hawaii’s most sacred islands – Kaho’olawe. Kaho’olawe is believed to be the kino lau or manifestation of Kanaloa a sacred ground for the people of Hawaii to practice and embrace their culture. This island is known as the piko, or navel of the Hawaiian islands, the crossroads of past and future generations where Hawaiian culture was spread. But the history of Kaho’olawe has not been an easy one. The island is thought to have been settled by Native Hawaiians since 400 AD but, as the years went on, a dark evolution of the island began to take place.

In the 1800’s it was used as a penal colony for adult men, in the early 1900’s the uncontrolled grazing of cattle, sheep, and goats on the ranch lands started to decimate native vegetation. In 1953, in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Navy took the island under Martial Law as a bombing site. Ordnance were dropped on Kaho’olawe until the early 1990’s, destroying sections of land, eliminating acres of native vegetation, and causing massive amounts of erosion to come from the island.

In 2004 the process of removing unexploded ordnance from the island started, in hopes of restoring it to its once accessible state. Around 75% of the surface area of Kaho’olawe is cleared today and, of this, 11% is cleared to a depth of 4 feet. The next step in the restoration project has been to re-plant native vegetation to stunt the erosion and combat the extensive network of invasive plants that have moved in.

Hawaiian cultural site

Ordinance Wall

Look out to Maui

Nowadays so many volunteers apply to assist with this restoration that there is a multi-year waiting list. After a three year wait, a small group of Pacific Whale Foundation employees were admitted access to Kaho’olawe with a conservation mission to help restore the island. Our staff spent three days pulling invasive plant species and replacing them with over 1,000 new native plants, while exploring and learning of the cultural significance this island has to the Hawaiian people. Our staff were honored and privileged to be allowed to partake in this conservation experience of a lifetime. Hard work and dedication to restoring this island was given to Kaho’olawe by a small group of volunteers, upholding one of Pacific Whale Foundation’s main tiers, conservation and environmental stewardship.

Plant Restoration

Untouched Beaches of Kaho’olawe

Pacific Whale Foundation Volunteers

Kaho’olawe has generations of restoration work ahead of it, but with passionate volunteers dedicated to conservation and cultural understanding, this island will hopefully one day be restored.